Outrage over blocking comments against IIPM

Those who uploaded content critical of IIPM have discovered that access through ISPs has been revoked by an order from DoT. Online social networks - Twitter and Facebook - has been protesting the Web censorship. Photo: By Special Arrangement

A recent Apple convert, Karthik loves to write human stories in a world enabled by technologies. He has donned many hats in The Hindu, at both the Reporting and Internet sections. He was the editor,...
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Even direct reportage of facts is being termed defamatory, says Nikhil Pahwa

A bid by a private institution to scrub clean the web of all critical opinion against it and a backdoor censorship facilitated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have stoked the rage of prominent commentators on Twitter and Facebook.

For the second day running on Sunday, the hashtag #IIPM was trending on Twitter across the Indian Twitterverse with several persons with good online traction keeping alive the content that the DoT, through a February 14 order, called for removal through Internet Service Providers.

While the web blockade, which, according to the DoT, was effected based on the directive of the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, managed to remove the URLs mentioned in the petitioner’s application, those fighting the censorship began a cat and mouse game online mirroring the content across various new web addresses and resources like Pastebin and Bitly, which offer cacheing of content and bookmarks.

Nikhil Pahwa of the Medianama website, which was the first to post the PDF document of the DoT calling for the blockade, said the DoT had effected the censorship without informing the content owners or even transparently declaring that the changes were called for. The website sourced the DoT order “unofficially.”

On Sunday evening, Shivam Vij of popular blog Kafila, posted: “Until Nikhil Pahwa of www.medianama.com informed me, I had no clue that India’s unjust and arbitrary Internet censorship regime had affected Kafila.”

He also mentioned that Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM, whom he had met at a television show on Sunday afternoon, promised to unblock Kafila from the list and that he was not directly involved in the Gwalior Bench case, but it had been filed by one of IIPM’s “channel partners.”

PR spin

There was already some PR spin from IIPM over the breakout of the news on social networks.

Tweets from the official IIPM think tank - @ArindamIIPM - posted a response on Saturday, in which Arindam Chauduri, while stating the web blockade issue was sub judice, accused the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education of being corrupt and that IIPM was proud to have no affiliation with them.

Free and open software advocate Atul Chitnis, in an email interview with The Hindu, said IIPM was not just using a distant court to gag specific websites but was also trying to scare other commentators into silence.

Sudhakar Reddy - Please provide us humble readers some reliable links to these alleged studies. I googled IIPM joint study with a lot of combinations and permutations but all Google came up with were one study with Tuck and a whole lot of other links to the IIPM site itself or some blogs where people like yourself have talked about such studies.
Whereas there is a published PDF of a declaration from Stanford available on the web that Stanford has no official joint venture or anything of that sort going on with IIPM. Anyone from Stanford doing anything of that nature does not represent the Uni.
I also cannot buy the argument that an institution with excellent standards is unable to make a mark due to bias towards the IIM's. The engineering college established by the Ambani Sr in Gujarat has an excellent reputation. It too has to fight brand IIT. So how did they do it?

from:
Aritra Gupta

Posted on: Feb 20, 2013 at 20:00 IST

Honestly I cannot comment on the modus of Operandi of IIPM,but i read all the four magazines of which Mr. Arindam is the Editor in Chief and also suscribe to the Human Factor. His ideas and thoughts are very original and innovative. I also listen to has Pre budget and post budget analysis.His book Count your Chicken before they are hatched is must read for all the Management students and Discover the diamond in you for all the students.He is a class apart. Do not crucify him. In an era of liberalization we need more guys like him. I admire him for his ideas and thoughts.I am retired Col from the Indian army and i do not have any connection with his instituions

from:
AE Charles

Posted on: Feb 20, 2013 at 09:42 IST

@Ramaiah

It looks like your understanding of English is off-the-track.

Well, if all the IIPM students are so happy with whatever they are getting, then others should not make issues about it. May be those guys deserve no better...LOL

from:
Nilesh

Posted on: Feb 19, 2013 at 18:47 IST

There is no question about IIPM's credibility. It is far better than all UGC and AICTE approved institutes. They don't stand anywhere near IIPM. You will get to know about its intellectual capital from IIPM Think Tank magazines... Especially Business and Economy and 4Ps Business & Marketing. Leading business thinkers like Malcom Gladwell, Geoffrey Moorey have written their forwards, Ivy league-B schools like Cornell and Tuck have done their joint studies with IIPM. Check them out and then say something.

from:
Sudhakar Reddy

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 19:47 IST

The stupidity of the times we live in...UGC can print notice in newspapers on regular basis but can't post it on its website! IIPM has time and again been proven a fraud.

from:
Saurabh

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 18:41 IST

Print media loves him as he spends big money in Ad. How can any body to day lure MBA students with a 'Free lap top when they pay through their nose - a class 10 student in TN gets one from the government one free . He is a narcissist.

from:
Vijay Nair

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 17:24 IST

I am an IIPM alumni and love IIPM, especially its daring spirit. And this latest action of pulling down and challenging these irrelevant and misguiding articles (which are often not even well researched) proves it. This will mark a new era in Internet space in India.

from:
aishwarya patil

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 13:28 IST

I go with IIPM. At least they have the guts to stand up to the defamation rampant on the net.

from:
sibin

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 12:07 IST

The defendants' should have been given a chance to explain their position. Instead of blocking specific web page (URL) blocking entire website is outrageous.

from:
AL MOORTHY

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 09:18 IST

IIPM: Uttarakhand Registrar recommends a ban
Ban IIPM from the state or bring it under regulation advices Uttarakhand Technical University to the Administration.
by Team Careers360Print|

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Comment(s): 13
March 11, 2010

With UGC moving in slow motion, it is left to the state education departments to fend for themselves. While the case by IIPM against UGC for declaring it as a fake university has been in the courts for almost 2 years, states like Uttarakhand have started moving in to protect the interests of the students of their state.

from:
UKartik

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 03:48 IST

Thanks to the news about the blocking. That prompted me to go and learn about this more. If it had not been blocked I wouldn't have bothered to know about IIPM.

from:
S. Santoshkumar

Posted on: Feb 18, 2013 at 02:13 IST

Can anyone make any sense of this story? Try this pearl of the ENglish anguage:
"For the second day in running Sunday, the hashtag #IIPM was trending on Twitter across the Indian Twitterverse with several persons with good online traction keeping alive the content that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through an order dated February 14 called for removal through the Internet Service Providers (ISPs)."
It's not just the language that's off the track but nothing about the reporting fits in any journalistic standard. The most disappointing this about this is that it comes in one of the few publications with any standards at all. The Hindu can now just drop all pretense. Just posting a public editor out there does nothing!! Just disappointed, Mr. Editor!